Outline of two extended essays for the thesis book due on Jan 15

Life in cyber space and the invisible network

-          Emerging Complexity (life is no more simple) Space time compression

-          Life in Networks (Social networks where everything is connected)

-          Matrix of Cyberspace (electronic networks and world of hypertext)

-          Multiple Self (issue of identity)

-          Alternate Realities (issue of place)

-          Device addicted culture

-          Translating the experience of such a networked society into an installation by designing datascapes as human console systems and connecting those to each other as nodes in the network.  Explain the evolution of these datascapes from hard core wire system to continuous and then discrete data vessels, the introduction of human agent and the adaption of a group behavior by a rule set of proximity and content itself.

Media overload and the visual rhetoric of war

-          Building the argument that we are living in an age of media overload of both text and image and the proposition that this new media could be used to create rhetoric of war as an instrument of anti war activism.

-          Post 9/11 scenario and the public opinion on the war of Iraq - the conspiracy theories and the ground facts - the case of wikileaks.com and the release of classified data.

-          History of anti war activism in America in particular the protests in the capital. What they have to say and why it is important. The question of total democracy and the right of speech.

-          Defining the new media of e-mails, blogs, cell phones, instant messaging, digital cameras, a global internet, hand-held video camera, 24-hour news broadcasts, satellite television and its possible integration into one system.

-          The application of this new media theory in the project and the systematic proliferation of information relating to war from around the world to one ground base that is The Pentagon.

long awaited Interior

time glider: Iraq war logs

http://timeglider.com/app/viewer.php?uid=line_da3e1807db0c4a8e90c38add758dcb3d

synopsis

The project proposes a system of data vessels (DVs) where each DV is an interactive application that tracks down information on military conflicts based on Google earth location in accordance with the freedom of information act 1966. They enclose an inhabitable space inside activated by the user. Together they form a DV field that exhibit a communal/group behavior and make clusters based on location based matching and in this way implicate the social behavior of a networked society with each DV as a node in the network. This system is plugged in the outer ring of the western side of pentagon (US dept of defense) attacked on 9/11/01, an event that triggers another war in the world. On the outer side is the media wall that broadcast the real time activity inside DVs and becomes a loud expression of public opinion on the wars at present.

render_firstexp

List of ongoing military conflicts

finally, i am defining DVs in terms of the specificity of contained data stream. 

Each DV is an interactive application that tracks down information from the news archive on military conflicts that is available online based on google earth location.

To give you a rough idea, here is the list of ongoing military conflicts around the world. (wikipedia)

1000+ deaths per year

Conflicts in the following list are currently causing at least 1000 violent deaths per year, a categorization used by the Uppsala Conflict Data Program and recognised by the United Nations. The UN also use the term "low intensity conflict", which can overlap with the 1000 violent deaths per year categorization.

Start of Conflict	War/Conflict	Location	Cumulative fatalities
1967	Naxalite-Maoist insurgency	India	10,500+ (1,100 in 2009)
1978	Afghan civil war (since 2001)	Afghanistan	600,000-2,000,000
1991	Somali Civil War since 2009	Somalia	300,000 –400,000
2003	Iraq War	Iraq	98,252-107,235
2004	War in North-West Pakistan	Pakistan	30,452
2006	Mexican Drug War	Mexico	More than 28,000
2009	Sudanese nomadic conflicts	Sudan	~2,500

Other conflicts

There are many other smaller-scale armed conflicts that are currently causing a smaller number of violent fatalities each year.

Start of Conflict	War/Conflict	Location	Cumulative fatalities
1948	Internal conflict in Burma	Burma	~ 70,000
1948	Arab–Israeli conflict	Israel and various Arab nations (changed over time).	90,000-150,000
1950	Korean War	North Korea and  South Korea
1959	Basque Conflict	Spain,  France	~ 1,200
1964	Colombian Armed Conflict	Colombia	50,000 – 200,000
1964	Insurgency in Northeast India	India	~ 25,000
1969	Papua conflict	Indonesia	75,000 - 100,000
1969[16]	Insurgency in the Philippines[17]	Philippines	~120,000
1978	Turkey–Kurdistan Workers' Party conflict	Turkey	45,000
1987	Lord's Resistance Army insurgency	Uganda,  Sudan  DR Congo and  Central African Republic	~12,000
1989	Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir	India	~68,000
2002	Insurgency in the Maghreb	Algeria,  Mali,  Mauritania and  Morocco	6000+
2004	Balochistan conflict	Iran and  Pakistan	7,000+
2004	Iran–Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan conflict	Iran	150-300
2004	South Thailand insurgency	Thailand	~3,500
2005	Fourth Civil War of Chad	Chad	1,140+
2008	Cambodian–Thai border stand-off	Cambodia and  Thailand	11-93
2009	Insurgency in the North Caucasus	Russia	~900
2009	South Yemen insurgency	Yemen	180+
2010	Yemeni al-Qaeda crackdown	Yemen	250+

the social phenomena

its time to narrate the story of the DV - field.
the objective is to implicate the social phenomena of human interaction in the culture of a networked society
procedure:
user A enters the field and get assigned with a DV
lets say DV1 that now senses its presence - get activated - orientate itself towards the user and blinks on/off lights
user A enters the DV - takes its position - now DV1 becomes a human console for the user A
before the actual communication takes place - user A is asked a series of questions and the input data is used to match the user to anothr user in the field lets say user B
the MATCH gives the two users physical proximity - that is the DVs move towards each other - and the users can feel the physical presence through the translucent skin of the DV (or the console)
now the actual communication takes place - the DVs are shared like a remote desktop - the matched users work together to create a message or collage -
as they are working - more users get matched up and join - so they may end up working in a crowd - still discrete in their own shells.

Revisions - architecture as a running process

REVISED CONSTRUCTION: (after the feedback from the mid review)

I replace the strip with the cube with media walls on the two sides to exhibit the DV data. in this way the front wall is for the public and back to be viewed by the pentagon workers with the same content on both sides. so that it becomes a loud expression of public opinion on the wars at present.

Inside the cube there is a field of DVs and the field condition  is a responsive behavior of DVs (data vessels) to actuators (humans).

when there is no one inside the DVs will be in inert state. when human bodies enter the field, the pressure sensitive floor inform DVs of their presence and one DV is activated and assigned to each body. they enter it and 360 screen turned ON. in terms of structure, DVs are attached to discs that can move anywhere in the field. half of the DV is programable to provide a comfort position to the user.

also these DVs self communicate and exhibit a communal/group behavior. these get clustered according to the 3 modes of working inside them.

CURATE THE DATA:

Inside there are 3 modes of working;

1. Projection mode: you work live and that gets projected on the media wall outside

2. Research mode: where you do research and video conference

3. Broadcast mode: you watch web cams located at various remote locations and broadcast your message

for the first and second modes there are 3 levels of working;

Introductory: level 0: image archives and brief text

Intermediate: level 1: access to archives of level 1 plus all the paper and electronic media

Classified: level 2: access to archives of level 1 and 2 plus govt classified data in the public realm

In terms of networking, there are two options;

LOCAL network (for all the users in the DVs)

GLOBAL network (for the users on the WWW)

more details coming soon...

field of self communicating DV's